Key details
Date
- 21 December 2022
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 5 minutes
In a year we launched our most significant campus expansion with a visit from the now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, our students continued to be recognised globally for their outstanding achievements in innovation and art, we increased the number of scholarships available to students experiencing obstacles to study, and together we held our reputation as the number one university for art and design internationally in the QS World University Rankings by Subject.
We reflect on the many achievements from the RCA community in the past 12 months below.
January
- HRH the Prince of Wales (now HM King Charles III) and Sir Jony Ive’s inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab revealed 20 finalists from 125 submissions, with credible design solutions to the climate crisis.
- RCA students’ annual Work in Progress presentation took place online for the second time in our history, capturing a global audience with new art and design.
- Our Design Age Institute launched six ground-breaking Pathfinder Projects funding research for healthy ageing including a birdsong app for hearing and cargo-carrying robots.
February
- The Grand Challenge 2021/22: New Economic Model for the Oceans (NEMO), in partnership with Logitech and supported by Extreme E and Sustainable Ventures, resulted in a shortlist of design solutions by RCA students, responding to a range of environmental issues.
- The RCA and Wandsworth Arts Fringe Creative Bursaries were awarded to four local artists and designers aged 16–25 at the beginning of their careers.
March
- Over 1,000 graduates from 2020 and 2021 who missed their graduation ceremony due to the pandemic gathered to celebrate Convocation! An Honorary Doctorate was also awarded to Lubaina Himid CBE, recognising her ground-breaking contribution to arts and culture.
- We brought futuristic design and digital art to Dubai as an official Heritage partner of the UK at Expo 2020, with an exhibition of work by RCA alumni – Shaping Futures: Design-Led Innovation.
- A new RCA research project led by Dr Qian Sun on green social prescribing was announced. Connecting Roots is part of a £1.5 million Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) programme for levelling up health and wellbeing in the UK.
- Jacqui Lipinski, the RCA’s Chief Information Officer and Director of Digital and Technical Services, won the ‘Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer of the Year Award’ at the 2022 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards.
April
- We revealed four winners of HRH the Prince of Wales (now HM King Charles III) and Sir Jony Ive’s inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab – with 20 shortlisted projects from across the RCA on show at our Battersea campus.
- Our Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC) exhibited works produced in partnership with Bentley Motors at Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture – a major exhibition at Guggenheim Bilbao curated by Norman Foster.
- Sin Wai Kin (MA Print, 2017) was one of four artists shortlisted for the 2022 Turner Prize with judges impressed by the boundary-pushing nature of Sin’s work.
- We joined industry leaders to form global non-profit alliance Design for Good, driving a collaborative approach to developing innovative solutions that address UN Sustainable Development Goals.
- InnovationRCA Start-up Ananas Anam’s sustainable pineapple textiles from our PhD Textiles graduate Dr Carmen Hijosa featured in BBC's Love Letters from Britain.
- Researchers at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) at the RCA contributed to landmark success in virtual reality treatment for mental health with gameChange.
May
- The RCA was named leading university for art and design globally for the eighth consecutive year by the QS World University Rankings by Subject.
- The Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, joined us for the unveiling of our new campus in Battersea, designed by Herzog & de Meuron - the most significant campus development in RCA history. The Chancellor met staff, students and alumni – including visiting our in-house incubator InnovationRCA and our Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC).
- The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 results showed how the RCA continues to be a world-leading research-intensive institution – with a higher proportion of overall outputs graded world-leading (4*) than in REF2014.
- The RCA2020 graduate exhibition opened at the Oxo Tower, recapturing dynamic art and design by 2020 graduates who could not take part in a physical show due to the pandemic.
- We announced the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship for UK students of Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage increasing diversity and inclusivity at the RCA.
June
- Our MA Sculpture students launched a series of installations in Battersea Park at the site of Barbara Hepworth’s Single Form (Memorial) – on loan during 2022
- RCA2022 took over our Kensington and Battersea campuses, as well as taking place online as a digital discovery platform – featuring 900 students across art and design disciplines.
- A £1 million donation from the Helen Hamlyn Trust marked a new chapter for the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) and its new home in the Rausing Tower, and a celebratory event was held to thank Lady Hamlyn (DesRCA Diploma Fashion, 1955) for her generous ongoing support.
- We welcomed our first international delegation to our new Battersea campus, strengthening our relationship with the Korea Institute of Design Promotion.
July
- Inclusive design was celebrated at the 2022 Helen Hamlyn Design Awards while the winner of Hamlyn Walker Challenge, Michael Stantz, reimagined everyday mobility.
- Delegates from the School of Design, Dr Christina Youngmi Choi and Dr Laura Ferrarello travelled to the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon to see how design at the RCA can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Seven RCA artists were selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022 by a panel of internationally renowned artists, including Veronica Ryan and Zadie Xa.
- 2022 MA Photography graduates Fernanda Liberti and Jesus Torio were announced as finalists of the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents.
- The RCA’s Design Age Institute and the Design Museum presented The Future of Ageing – an exhibition exploring how design is transforming healthy ageing.
August
- We partnered with the Samuel Ross Black British Artist Grant Programme offering ten grants of £2,500 in support of Black British artists - aiding not only the discovery of and relief for creative talent through these grants, but also supporting the wider community.
- RCA PhD student and multidisciplinary artist Osman Yousefzada opened What is Seen and What is Not at the Victoria & Albert Museum, exploring race, identity and migration, on the 75th Anniversary of Pakistan’s partition from India.
- Karoline Vitto (MA Fashion, 2019) and Michael Stewart (MA Fashion, 2017) became two of the newest designers to join Fashion East’s Incubator for New Talent.
September
- The RCA brought breakthrough design to the London Design Festival 2022 with events including OPPO X RCA, GREEN GRADS and Open for Innovation.
- We showed our commitment to engaging with the public and industry – achieving Outstanding Results in the second Knowledge Exchange Framework, with 'high' or 'very high' engagement across 5 of the 7 KEF perspectives.
- The Design Age Institute (DAI) partnered with the University of the Third Age to publish a report revealing the most frustrating everyday household objects as we age, and launch an online petition proposing an inclusive design standard for packaging.
- The RCA2022 Autumn Show brought emerging practice across fine art, design, visual communication and more to our Battersea campus once again.
October
- The Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC) brought research on the circular economy in the fashion and textiles industries to the public with the Regenerative Fashion Hub.
- RCA-led research project Ecological Citizens was awarded a £3.3 million grant by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to tackle ecological crisis through citizen action via the digital economy.
- Mary Martins (MA Animation, 2022) was announced as the winner of the Circa x Dazed Class of 2022, for her documentary Something More, which explores youth violence in London.
- Sun Aijia, a MA Information Experience Design student, won the Lumen Prize HUA Award with their work Melting Myth.
- We announced our 2022 Pokémon Scholars - MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering student Steph Jump and MA Visual Communication student Ollie Cameron.
November
- The £6.1 million Märit Rausing Scholarships in Ceramics & Glass marked the largest scholarship donation in RCA history – awarding six scholarships of £35,000 a year over the next two decades.
- We announced the RCA Virgil Abloh Scholarship offering £35,000 to an extraordinarily talented, but financially restricted, Black British student in our School of Design each year.
- Three new InnovationRCA Start-Ups were announced for our start-up programme, improving our health, sustainability and security through design innovation.
- Winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab travelled to Egypt for the COP27 Climate Conference, where they presented their start-up businesses at the Terra Carta Action forum.
December
- We celebrated Disability History Month with student stories exploring disabled experience, a series of RCASU events from disabled practitioners and joining the Purple Light Up at our Kensington campus.
- The £1 million Earthshot Prize was won by Notpla, a start-up founded by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier while studying on the Innovation Design Engineering MA at the RCA and Imperial College London.
- Material reuse project Spolia Tectonic by MA Architecture student Dario Biscaro was commended by the judging panel of the 2022 RIBA President’s Silver Medal.
- We announced our new Max Mara Scholarships, offering students facing financial hardship the opportunity to study on our MA Fashion in the School of Design.